Ukraine's new defense minister of Crimean origin: Who is Rustem Umerov?

Umerov, born in 1982, became the first Crimean Tatar Turk to hold a ministerial position in the history of Ukraine, according to the Turkish official TV channel TRT. Posts on social media point out that Umerov has good relations with Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Rüstem Umerov is a name that has conducted important negotiations with Russia in the past.

Umerov represented Ukraine in peace talks with Russia at the beginning of the occupation. He played a key role in facilitating the high-profile exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine. He participated in the negotiations to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, in which Turkey also took part as a mediator.

Rustem Enverovych Umierov (born 19 April 1982) is a Ukrainian politician, businessman, investor, and philanthropist of Crimean Tatar origin. He is deputy head of the permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a delegate of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People, and an adviser to former Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People chair Mustafa Dzhemilev. Since December 2020, Umierov has co-chaired the Crimea Platform diplomatic initiative.

Umerov, one of the leading figures of the Crimean Tatars, was also an important figure in Ukrainian President Zelenskiy's establishment of relations with Islamic countries.

Rustem Umerov was born in 1982 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. During the period when Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, 200 thousand Muslim Tatars were exiled to Uzbekistan.

Tatars who fought against the Nazis in World War II were allowed to return to Crimea in the 1980s.

Umerov also returned to Crimea as a child. In his article for Liga.net in 2021, he wrote, "The deportation of Crimean Tatars is one of the biggest crimes of the Soviet regime" and added:

"This was initiated by the oppressors who were in power at the time, with the aim of destroying an entire nation."

Umerov also brought up the same article when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Rüstem Umerov received his bachelor's degree in economics and his master's degree in finance. He started his career in the telecom industry.

In 2013, he founded the investment company ASTEM and a jointly created outreach program at Stanford University in the US to train Ukrainian politicians, lawyers, and community leaders.

He was elected to the Ukrainian Parliament in 2019 and was later appointed head of the Wealth Fund, a state institution that sells state assets to private investors. This was seen as a challenging role in a country where privatization had become synonymous with corruption.

Umerov served as an advisor to the historical leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Cemilev, for many years. He was also co-chair of the Crimea Platform, an international diplomatic initiative focused on negotiations with Russia following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Speaking to the BBC shortly after Russia began its occupation of Ukraine, Umerov said he was "determined to find a political and diplomatic solution to this brutal occupation."

In March 2022, he participated in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine together with Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

It was claimed that Umerov and Abramovich showed symptoms of poisoning. Skin peeling and eye pain were some of the symptoms suggested.

However, Umerov later denied these reports and warned everyone not to "believe unconfirmed information".

'They have extensive connections with Turkey'

According to BBC Monitoring Service, social media users in Ukraine are divided about Zelenskiy's decision.

"This is an expected change and means that we are approaching the negotiating table," Russian political activist Kirill Shulika said on Telegram.

"The important thing is who is doing the behind-the-scenes diplomacy right now, and that person is Abramovich. Umerov is his confidant in Ukraine. Therefore, Abramovich's peace efforts have started to bear their first fruits to some extent. We will see what will happen to him and Umerov and what will happen next. ”

Marat Bashirov, pro-Kremlin writer for the Telegram channel Politjoystic, said: "In general, this does not change much, except for one thing: the Americans are starting to freeze the conflict, control it, and eliminate the most obnoxious representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. The culmination of this plan is Zelenskiy's 2024-2025 He claimed that he will leave office between the years.

Rybar, a leading pro-war Telegram channel, commented: "The change of defense minister in Ukraine will not affect the combat capability of the armed forces in any way. However, the responsibility for previous failures can be attributed to Reznikov."